Turkey again set to be bone of contention

DURING the final press conference at last December’s European summit, Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Jacques Poos declared: “This was not a Turkey summit,” and refused to answer any more questions on the subject.

Even though the EU had resolved a serious dispute over the mini single currency council, and had paved the way for enlargement to central and eastern Europe, the media had latched on to Turkey’s apparent rejection as the most interesting event of the two days.

With the Union under intense pressure from both Ankara and the US to give Turkey a better deal at Cardiff, it seems highly possible that Turkish relations will again loom large on the international media’s agenda.

South African President Nelson Mandela’s appearance will attract a fair degree of coverage, as will Blair’s efforts to sell Europe to the UK and to place ‘people’ at the centre of the EU.

But as tension mounts in the Aegean ahead of Russia’s delivery of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Cyprus, it would be difficult for the press to ignore Ankaran affairs altogether.

It is widely feared that Turkey will thwart any attempt to ship the weapons, due for delivery sometime this summer, through the Straits of Bosphorus.

That could bring it into direct conflict with Moscow, raising tensions throughout the region and putting the EU in the firing line for failing to ease tensions earlier.

The trouble is that, no matter how much interest is drummed up by the summit, the Union is highly unlikely to give away anything of substance over and above its ambiguous affirmation in Luxembourg of Turkey’s ‘eligibility’ as an EU applicant, although it may search for some soothing words.

What the Turks want is clear: equal treatment with other Union enlargement candidates, including a pre-accession partnership and preparatory ‘screening’ of their legislation.

“We want the European Union to rectify its position towards Turkey,” the country’s EU ambassador Uluç Özülker told European Voice.

“Turkey was qualified in Luxembourg as a country in the enlargement process, but not in the accession process. We see this as very contradictory.”

Özülker welcomed the European Commission’s draft new Turkey strategy, which explicitly aims towards enlargement, but questioned some of its instruments and the lack of EU consensus on the matter.

The UK remains vague about the precise formula European leaders will come up with. “Cardiff will review Turkey’s progress towards enlargement and take stock of its relations with the EU,” said a British spokeswoman.